Faced with a rapidly changing market landscape, organizations across all industries have relied heavily on their CIOs to make critical technology decisions that ensure the future of the business.
However, this newfound influence has come with its share of challenges. In our global surveys of technology leaders, we found that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to an atmosphere in which many CIOs feel like they’re leading post-pandemic strategies alone.
We consulted with analysts, customers, and partners to uncover the trends and most urgent needs of tech executives. We did this at two points in time, nine months apart, to understand how sentiments shifted, and how technology leaders were reacting as the pandemic unfolded. Our goal was to identify and provide decision-making guidance for CIOs like you.
Most recent reports provide insights into past, future of businesses
The first, “A Historic Time When Leadership Matters,” was released in the second quarter of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. It details how CIOs were feeling during waves of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders and how they saw that this crisis could accelerate for digital transformation.
This report revealed the increasing isolation that CIOs experienced as the pandemic took its toll financially, logistically, and emotionally. CIOs were also concerned with protecting employees’ health. But even with so much uncertainty, executives felt they needed to act quickly on new opportunities and initiatives suddenly necessary to mitigate pandemic-related changes.
Despite CIO fatigue, reasons for optimism
The second report, “After a Transformative Year, Businesses Seek preparedness,” came out nine months later, in the first quarter of 2021. This report surveyed 456 senior VP or higher tech executives, from companies with 1,000 or more employees. It found that they had all successfully dealt with the emergency and were looking ahead to a post-pandemic environment.
While the events of 2020 severely disrupted businesses, they prompted tech executives to transform their organizations to become more nimble and agile. And, despite ever-increasing organizational complexity, they took steps in that direction.
CIOs prioritized and improved scalability, flexibility, and efficiency
With normal channels of customer contact and employee work interrupted by the pandemic, CIOs understood that they needed to put more resources into improving customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX). To do so, they had to actively expand cloud environments, while improving security measures against breaches and attacks that could now occur with greater frequency.
While these steps amplified the complexity of their businesses, CIOs understood that this was a price they were willing to pay for long-term technological success and sustainability.
It’s clear that everyone is eager to put the pandemic in the rear-view mirror. But these reports give you a valuable look at how global business changed over the past year and a half. They also provide recommendations of critical actions technology leaders can take immediately to set their businesses up for the future.
Many forward-thinking CIOs are adapting to changing business environments, and are boosting innovation to move their businesses forward. VMware Lead/Forward Insights Reports—with their aggregation of business research and best practices advice—can help you do the same.
The full report is available below
